Any idea how much milk our family drinks in just a WEEK? 

Our local school system is thinking about getting rid of driver’s ed classes. I took driver’s ed when I was a sophomore in high school. My teacher was the school’s football coach. Some days we got in the car and he told us to take him to his dry cleaners and his bank. Other days he said we could drive wherever we wanted. We went to McDonalds, the music store and cruising through the parking lots of other schools. Regardless of the destination, the coach put on his seat belt and opened his newspaper up so that he couldn’t see out the windshield. Frequently he would fall asleep. After the 6 week class, my parents got a certificate to get a reduction in the cost of insuring me and I got my license on my 16th birthday without having to take the driving test. That's quality education.

Since it was in the 60s today, Molly had a doggie sundae from Bruster's Ice Cream. She recommends it highly.

Doug and I are HUGE fans of Kristyk. If Blogher had scholarships, Kristyk and I would sit under a table together and watch the blog celebrities party. Today, Kristyk posted a quote that Doug and I talked about for hours.

“Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible - the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family.”Virginia Satir

I have always heard that the number one topic of arguments in marriage is money. Doug and I don’t argue about money. We are pretty much in the same place on the topics of money, sex, life and politics (although Doug likes conspiracy theories more than I). When we disagree, it is almost always about parenting. Even the arguments that look like they are about something else, end up being about parenting, even if it is about how we were parented rather than how we are parenting. We do differ in our way of arguing. He likes to have a tantrum and then let it go. I like to discuss it to death. Personality differences or gender differences? Doug struggles with knowing in his heart how to be a nurturing parent, while his head fights the urge to say things like “There are no accidents.” We end up playing good cop/bad cop when it comes to discipline and neither of us like this arrangement. The fact that I brought children into our marriage does not play a part in the parenting arguments. He treats all of the children with the same love and care. He IS their father. He is there for the holidays, the activities, the school meetings and the sicknesses. He is there for them every moment of every day and will almost always stop whatever he is doing to give them his attention. It is not always easy, but while nurturing our children, we are nurturing each other. I believe that our children know they are the focus of our lives. We are busy, loud, messy and silly but we enjoy life. It might be nice to struggle less financially, but the time we spend with the children is much more valuable than any stuff money can buy.

Busy Mom is asking about tweeners using myspace. Just last week I quizzed Sarah about myspace, xanga and facebook. She admitted having friends with accounts but denied having one herself. The rule in our house is that you don't sign up for anything without permission. She does have an instant messenger account that we allowed her to have. Last year after a sleepover, we found one of her friends had been using very provocative IM names and talking to strangers. Doug went to tell the girl's mother and the mother just laughed it off as nothing to worry about. This year a different tweener friend has a xanga account. The girl has her full name and birthdate listed. This time I asked Sarah to advise her friend to remove her last name and year of birth. The info hasn't been changed but she hasn't blogged since she learned out that I found her blog either. All I succeeded in doing was chasing her to a new site.

This is gonna be one of THOSE weeks. I will be doing social studies, science and math projects. 

"Pink girls make yellow pee."

You know those old jeans you never wear any more? The ones that don’t fit or have a big ink stain on the pocket? Go get them. Are they 100 percent cotton? Cut them into 6 inch squares. Seriously, I want you to cut into those old jeans. Done? Then pull out your sharpie permanent markers and decorate that square. Imagine a 1 inch frame on the square and keep your decoration in the center 4 inches. Doodle, draw a picture, write a positive message or just sign your name. That’s it. You just made a quilt square. Now, send that quilt square (or lots of them) to me and I will bundle them and ship them to Operation Quiet Comfort. They are making Four Freedoms quilts for injured soldiers with these quilt squares. They will take a picture of the finished quilt(s) and I will post the picture here. Come on, this is the least we can do. Leave a note in the comments and I’ll send you my address or you can just google me (I have no illusions about Internet privacy). Just drop them in the mail in the next two weeks so I can get them all bundled and shipped before Girl Scout cookies take over my life on February 27th.

Do you live in East TN? I will make it even easier for you to participate. I will meet you somewhere and I will bring the denim squares and pens. All you have to do is take a minute to decorate the square. You spend more time playing with Photoshop than this will take. I REALLY want to collect enough squares to donate one quilt from The Rocky Top Brigade. I will even meet you someplace fun, like say Ben & Jerry’s?

Oh, puh-leeze bribe me to blog about your product, food or service. Don’t just claim your washer/dryer hold the biggest loads, let us try them. Think your restaurant, hotel and amusement park are family friendly? We can tell you. Instead of telling us that cruise will be a great escape, interview me. Consumer reviews are not the same thing as paid public servants serving big business for bribes.

Ferd might pound me for saying this, but when I heard a KISS song on the radio this afternoon, I thought, “This sounds kinda disco to me.”